Wikipedia alternative aims to be 'PBS of the Web'

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Hi, nucrash.

You said:

This article barely mentions Wikipedia, but rather goes into a spiel about how Digital Universe is supposed to be better.

That's because the article wasn't about Wikipedia, but about the upcoming alternative to Wikipedia. The article's title was appropriate to the content.

As far as the whole debate on the importance of scholarly review:

It's true that putting "Ph.D" after someone's name doesn't automatically make them a genius. But that's not the point. Wikipedia's problem (in the eyes of many, at least) is that it allows people to spout off on subjects they don't necessarily know anything about. The advantage of having scholarly review is that these kinds of articles are skimmed out.

Now, it's true that there are errors in scholarly papers, including scientific papers. But the idea here is to put domain knowledge experts in control of content. Scientific errors get corrected exactly because this kind of review goes on.

Yes, it's a sad fact that many highly-educated people don't have the sense to come out of the rain. But that's only a problem if you're asking them what to do when it rains. On average, if you take a person off the street at random, and a Ph. D, and ask them a question about the Ph. D's subject knowledge, the Ph. D's answer is the one you should take. And that's the point: Services like these are just taking people off the street, figuratively speaking. They need to be backed up by credentials to have some credibility.

Posted by: bhartman36   Posted on: 12/20/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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